Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Thengai Podi

Thegai podi - dry coconut chutney powder, kopparai thenga podi, instant coconut rice powder.

I prepare this kind of ready to eat podi during festival times, as I will be much occupied with snack making and won't have much time to concentrate on regular cooking. Paruppu podi and thengai podi can make that hot rice heavenly with just a drop of ghee and appalam. Before marriage I packed this podi for hubby dear as a gift(along with paruppu podi and a sweet)and from then on it became his favorite. He saved those 'plastic sunrise coffee bottles' which I used to pack and showed me after marriage and keeps them as a treasure till now:) It may be a small gift from my side, but the way he remembers it makes me enjoy cooking:)

Thengai podi in container.
Ingredients:Shredded coconut - 1 1/2 cup (or) dried coconut / kopparai thengai - 1 (small)
(I used dry unsweetened coconut)
dry red chillies - 10
tamarind - 2 inch
bengal gram (kadalai paruppu / channa dhal) - 2 tbsp
black gram (urad dhal) - 2 tbsp
cumin - 1 tbsp
curry leaf - 2 sprig
salt to taste (1 tbsp)

Method:
Heat a tbsp oil  and fry the dhals, cumin, tamarind, curry leaf separately and keep aside.
With 1 drop of oil fry the red chilles to get a nice red flavor (not black).
In the same pan add  the coconut pieces / shredded coconut and fry to get a mild red color and nice flavor (do it in low heat). If needed add a few drops of oil.
Let them all cool. Then dry grind them to a fine powder.
It can be kept safely for a month without refrigeration.

Serving suggestion:
It can be served over hot rice with little ghee or mixed and served as quick coconut rice.
Its a good side dish for curd rice also.

Tips:
*Coconut chutney podi / thengai podi holds good as a travel food during vacations. Sometimes people require home made foods during long journey or pilgrimage. In that case a rice cooker along with this thengai podi will do the job:)
*This podi can be used as replacement for coconut paste in any dishes.
*Adding little water with a handful of this podi will become a chutney for idly/ dosa / tamarind rice.

7 comments:

MyKitchen Flavors-BonAppetit!. said...

Apadiye Sapidalam Pol irukirathu.Yummmy Coconut Chutney Powder Viki.Useful recipe.Bookmarked it.

Alpana said...

Thanks for sharing this recipe.....very nice recipe.

Suja Manoj said...

My mom make this every time..flavorful and spicy podi

Priya Suresh said...

Yumm, my kind of podi..just love with rice and potato chips..

R said...

sounds yummy and versatile.

Saraswathy Balakrishnan said...

Would be perfect with iddies my dear:)

Hamaree Rasoi said...

The way ur hubby kept nicely those plastic bottles, shows how much he liked your effort and love :-)
Nice podi.
Btw how are you dear? I was on vacation so missed ur updates

Deepa
Hamaree Rasoi

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